`When offenders leave here," says the Cork Prison governor, Mr Frank McCarthy, "I really believe they think they will not be coming back again and that life on the outside is going to be better for them this time around.
"Very often, they simply can't cope on their own. We can help to find them accommodation or a job, but sooner or later many of them will fall into the old habits.
"More often than not, when they do they'll be coming back through those gates one more time. Many of the inmates who have served their time don't have much going for them when they're free and on their own. It's sad, really."
Last week Cork Prison was in the news when more than 100 prisoners refused to return to their cells. Their complaint was that plans to replace the existing wire covering the yard with a finer mesh would deprive them of light.
In reality, according to prison sources, they were concerned that the new mesh would block off a supply route for drugs, mainly ecstasy and cannabis, which have been delivered over the wall in light bulbs.
When the light bulbs smashed on the wire, the drugs would shower down on the inmates. In the scramble, the prison officers would rarely have time to get to the drugs before the prisoners. The new mesh will put an end to this.
Cork is a very overcrowded prison, and it will be four years before the situation is relieved. On one day last week there were 275 inmates in a facility designed to hold a maximum prison population of 150 men.
There were two prisoners in cells intended for one, while six people were sharing cells designed for three men.
On occasion, when courts in Cork, Kerry and Waterford are particularly busy and the number of committals is high, emergency sleeping arrangements have to be made and mattresses brought into cells to provide makeshift beds.
Cork is the committal prison for the three counties, and when a prisoner is delivered from the courts to the care of the governor, he has no option but to accept him.
On arrival, the new inmate will find his shared cell does not have a toilet. Bed pans have to be used during the night and slopped out in the morning.
Cork Prison is, in general, one of the quieter jails in the State.
The regime, the governor says, is tough but fair and is administered in such a way that if a prisoner co-operates with the system, he can turn it to his advantage and avail of educational facilities that might not be open to him on the outside.
The prison has a staff of 22 full-time teachers who helped 22 inmates to sit their Junior Certificate this year, one to take the Leaving Certificate and three others to take Open University courses.
The food is good, with a 14day menu cycle, and there is a gymnasium. Prisoners who use the gym are entitled to a shower; otherwise, the shower is available to each inmate only once a week.
The prison's D-unit, the only one of its kind in the State, is designed to hold unruly or disruptive prisoners. A spell in it can last up to two months without visits, calls or letters, although the food is the same as for any other inmate.
It holds a maximum of 10 prisoners, and relief from the isolation is at the discretion of the governor. Prisoners can put their names forward each day to see the governor. Mr McCarthy says he will always agree to talk to a D-unit prisoner if his conduct merits it. Prisoners who enter the unit because of bad behaviour can, by good behaviour, leave it early or have some of their privileges restored.
The £35 million extension to the prison which was announced earlier this year is well under way. When finished in four years' time, the prison will be capable of holding 275 prisoners in single cells, each with its own toilet. That will be more appropriate to a prison in the new millennium, says Mr McCarthy, because prisoners are entitled to human dignity as well.
Is there a drugs problem in Cork Prison? "There will always be attempts made to get drugs in. That's why we don't allow physical contact with visitors, and that's why we are putting up the new mesh over the exercise yard. The drug situation here is under control. The incident with the prisoners was just another part of the day's work."